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A U.S. Navy Antarctic Expedition helicopter returns from survey of South Pole waters and lands on the icebreaker Northwind. In the distance are other ships of Task Force 68. (National Archives)

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Richard Blackburn Black

The Naval reserve officer assisted in three Antarctic expeditions

By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist

In June 1937, Richard Blackburn Black was sent to prepare an airstrip on Howland Island, a tiny American possession in the Pacific. Intended as a pit stop for Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Black's air station instead received the last known radio message from the ill-fated duo. Black was likely saddened but realistic. The Naval reserve officer, who would retire from the Reserve as a rear admiral 20 years later, had already seen his share of difficult and dangerous travel.

Born in Grand Forks, N.D., in 1902, Black graduated from North Dakota University with a civil engineering degree. His training came in handy during the three Antarctic expeditions he made with Adm. Richard Byrd. The first, in 1933, earned him the Navy's Special Silver Medal. During the second, in 1939, Black led the operations on East Base, located far down the Antarctic Peninsula's West Coast. Traveling by dogsled, his teams charted over 300 miles of previously unmapped coastline. Aircraft under his direction obtained photographs of unexplored coastal territory. Later, Black's name was given to 200 miles of the eastern coastline.

When the expedition was recalled to the United States, Black was sent to Hawaii on active duty, just in time to be at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He served in the Tarawa campaign, and later, at Saipan, earned the Bronze Star for directing troops and supplies through a narrow channel under fire.

In 1946, Black returned to civilian life, and worked as an operations analyst, first at Johns Hopkins University, then at the Office of Naval Research in Washington, D.C. He took a break for active service from 1954 to 1957, when he helped Byrd plan a new Antarctic expedition. In 1992, he was given a hero's burial in Arlington National Cemetery.